Start to series is strange, surprising

Ann Killion Start to series is strange, surprising

Updated 3:58 pm, Monday, October 8, 2012

(10-08) 15:56 PDT -- Every October has its own story.

And it didn't take long to realize that this October was not going to be like the last time the Giants were in the postseason.

The Giants waited a long time to get this postseason started. They went 14 days between meaningful games, a sharp contrast to their wild cannonball plunge into the playoffs in 2010. Waiting can take a toll on teams, on fans. It did in 2003 when the Giants had 100 wins but faded quickly against the Marlins.

On Saturday night, AT&T Park was oddly muffled for Game 1 of the National League Division Series as though everyone was waiting for 2010 to break out.

It didn't. This is a different October, arriving with its own quirks and oddities. Like a starter leaving a game after just eight pitches, or a 6-5 first baseman flipping over a railing like a Romanian gymnast.

Strange and surprising things, like the Giants losing the first game of a playoff series. Or Matt Cain giving up runs in the postseason.

But all those things happened Saturday. And the result was a 5-2 Giants loss and an early postseason hole.

This was the game the Giants were banking on. Their ace Cain on the mound, at home. It was a game they needed to take the pressure off the rest of their wobbly starting rotation and put the burden squarely on the Reds. And when Cincinnati's starter Johnny Cueto exited the game after just eight pitches, bent over with back spasms, it seemed as though things were going the Giants' way. The injury forced Reds manager Dusty Baker into desperation mode and the Giants seemed to have the upper hand.

But they didn't. Cain didn't. And that was the most surprising thing of all.

Cain had never given up an earned run in the postseason; in 2010, he threw 21.1 innings without allowing an earned run. He has been the Giants' best, most reliable pitcher ever since that October, a deep well of confidence that the Giants regularly dipped into. There was never a question who would take the ball in Game 1.

In 2010, the Giants won the first game in each of their three playoff series. Tim Lincecum was the winning pitcher in each of those games. In the Division Series against the Braves, Lincecum set the tone immediately, pitching a two-hitter, striking out 14 and leading the Giants to a 1-0 win. He gave the Giants a swagger that set other teams back on their heels.

That role now belonged to Cain, the man who had been perfect on a Wednesday in June. But on this Saturday in October, Cain struggled with his command. He gave up an early double to Jay Bruce, who came into the game hitting .462 against Cain. In the third inning Cain gave up a single to eighth-place hitter Drew Stubbs and then a home run to Brandon Phillips. In the fourth, Bruce added a home run. With the strength of the Reds' bullpen, that was a formidable deficit. Cain was gone after five innings and 75 pitches.

"He wasn't as sharp as he normally is out there," Bruce Bochy said. "He left a couple of off-speed pitches they took advantage of. Really, I thought he had some pretty good stuff. But we got down three and I had to take him out."

Instead, it was Baker's team notching an improbable Game 1 win. Baker was welcomed with a warm, prolonged standing ovation. He's still beloved in this city and always will be. On Saturday, he faced a manager's worst nightmare - losing a starter after just eight pitches. But Baker summoned Sam LeCure from the bullpen to buy time. LeCure shut down the Giants for 1 2/3 innings - ending up with the win - and then Baker went to his scheduled Game 3 starter, Mat Latos.

When Latos, the man who once signed his baseball "I hate SF," took the mound, the fans were too busy doing the fist pump song to boo their archenemy. The home-field advantage that the Giants rode two years ago never really developed Saturday. The muted vibe was a sharp contrast to the fresh raucous scene at the Coliseum earlier in the week. The AT&T crowd was at its most animated when the Gangnam Style video was on the big screen. Moments after the earworm ended, Buster Posey added his own style with a soaring home run over the left field wall that prompted chants of "MVP, MVP." But that was as close as the Giants ever got.

Everyone has spent the past two weeks waiting for the postseason to start. It isn't the one they expected.